Chuan Opera Hebei Clapper Opera
Chuan Opera and Hebei Clapper Opera, both local operas and were listed in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage in 2006.
After doing a lot of research, I found that local operas are the easiest to lose. They have strong regional characteristics, and because of the variety of Chinese dialects, the audience of local operas is much smaller than that of Peking Opera.
“Statistics show that there were 367 local operas in the 1950s, and more than 100 of them have died out. And many local plays are only written descriptions without audio-visual records.”
No successor, lack of money, no theatre became the most significant problem. But the good news is that the local government in Sichuan is taking it seriously.
The development of Chuan Opera (actively writing books, recording CDs, and preserving the traditional music of Sichuan Opera).
On the contrary, the subsequent development of the Hebei Clapper Opera is regrettable. It became one of the most influential traditional operas in northern China in the early Qing Dynasty and spread to Russia and Mongolia in its heyday.
But in the 1930s, Hebei Clapper Opera went into decline. After the Japanese invasion of China in 1931, the inheritors of opera in northeast China fled back to the countryside. Many opera troupes disbanded, or they rewrote Peking Opera or Pingju opera.
At that time, Tianjin was the most concentrated place of Hebei Clapper Opera with a large audience. But during the Japanese colonial period, there were almost no Hebei Clapper Opera in Tianjin.
In the 1940s, Hebei Clapper Opera was nowhere to be seen except at the temple fairs and the Spring Festival in the countryside.
Although the local government established the Hebei Opera School in 1955, there were signs of revival in the 1960s. However, due to the lack of government support and insufficient investment, its subsequent development is not as good as Sichuan Opera.
But in any case, the employment rate is so limited that few parents are willing to send their children there. The art form of opera is ancient, and it is challenging to sing and popularize. Young people don’t want to take the time to learn, resulting in an ageing audience as the biggest problem.
Chuan Opera Hebei Clapper Opera